Thursday, December 30, 2010

J. Bruce Campbell writes for Veterans Today. I have yet to find any of Veterans Today’s sister sites that will or have linked to his writings, although they use all of the other writers from VT. But Campbell and his writings are the final outcome of the kind of trash that appears on any of the sites. In this posting I am pleading with the leadership of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to read and understand that through the Israel/Palestine Mission Network and their postings and links we as a denomination are sliding into the vilest kind of bigotry and hatred.

The IPMN has linked to Veterans Today. They continue to link to the sister sites of VT. And they continue to acknowledge and post articles by James Wall although through his writings and sources he also has become a vile anti-Semite. As I have written before he has clearly praised Veterans Today.

J.B. Campbell blames the Jewish people for most of the ills in the world, He advocates for the death of Jewish Rabbis: he believes that the Jews were the cause of World War II and that the Nazis were the good guys. He advocates for a citizen’s take over of the United States and the hanging of all leadership.

Campbell has commented on David Fischler’s blog, Reformed Pastor, making some of the most irrational and insulting statements:

Mr. Fischler puts the Judeo in Judeo-Christianiy [sic]. Many Jews have infiltrated the Christian churches in order to monitor and guide Gentiles in the pro-Israel direction. Calling himself a church planter gives him the cachet of the old-timey Yankee Protestant but he is in fact a hard-core commissar whose mission is to keep the faithful in the Zionist yard.

I purposely made a very pointed statement to him. I will put my comment and his response here:

My comment: JB,The incarnation, God in human (Jewish) flesh is God’s love for lost sinners. You are one of those, an extreme example in fact. If you continue to reject what God has done through Jesus Christ, who in his incarnation is Jewish, all you have left is to continue to do evil and end in the fires of hell. May God have mercy on you and cause you to turn.

This is Campbell’s response: Powerful argument: believe my way or end in the fires of hell. Christians aren’t so goody-two-shoes as one might think.

Where you Christians get fooled is equating Jews (I assume you mean Levites or Canaanites or maybe Hebrews) with humans, that is, yourselves. But that’s not how the Jews think. They think that only Jews are human and the rest of us insects or cattle or other non-human things to be exploited.

They consider Christians such as yourself to be useful idiots who would be so sillyas to admit to worshiping a Jewish messiah, one which they for mysterious reasons deny.

You because of your basic good nature want to think of God as love, but that’s not how Jews see it. Their god, Yahweh, is a god of war, annihilation and inexplicable hatred. Any god that would slaughter all life on earth except for old Noah and his menagerie cannot be mentioned in the same sentence as the word “love.”

And James Wall calls Veterans Today, “a progressive website that sees injustice and calls it for what it is …”

James Wall’s endorsement of VT and those who write there places him in the same position as the German Christians who followed Hitler. Israel/Palestine Mission Network’s endorsement of James Wall and others connected to VT and their sister sites places them in the same position as the German Christians under Hitler. The PC (U.S.A.)’s refusal to do anything about these connections places our denomination in the same position as those German church members who failed to stand against the growing hatred in the German Church during the Nazi years.

The only difference is that Gordon Duff, the editor of VT, or any other member of this ungodly group of sites, is not the dictator of the United States. They are just very broken, confused, mistaken evil men and women. But this does not keep those who feed on their material from being any less guilty than the German Christians were.

Not many years ago this kind of anti-Semitism raged on the extreme right. The speakers, writers and publishers kept up their diabolical rage and soon followers of their ideology were committing crimes. A Jewish talk show host was killed. Banks were robbed to finance some of the actions. Jewish centers became targets for lone followers with guns. And in the city where I live, Sacramento, three synagogues within just a few moments of each other were set on fire. Two were badly damaged, one was destroyed.

As this kind of slanderous material becomes acceptable among the progressive community there is much more to fear than lone extremist or even hidden militias with their stacks of guns. There will be a new kind of politics, built by conspiracy theorists, and an ideology creeping into the theology of mainline churches that is ever more ready to reject the Old Testament. This is a problem for biblical believers to weep over, pray about and surely not ignore.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Alas! Mordor draws all wicked things, and the Dark Power was bending all its will to gather them there. (J.R.R. Tolkien)

He didn’t win, he never will. I had an interesting experience Tuesday Night. I was reading some very blatant radical propaganda on a site that the Israel/Palestine Mission Network linked to. Yes, it did make me think of Mordor and its evil Lord. And then my husband asked me to come and watch a video of a Christian Church in the Netherlands with people singing praise songs.

The church setting was very different. The sanctuary was filled with people of all ages with Down's syndrome and other such conditions. They were helping the various musicians, some stood by the singers, some by the drummers, some played the keys of a piano while the pianist played the song, and still others wandered here and there clapping their hands, many, sitting in the pews, joined in the joyous singing. And then I remembered that the Dark Power tried to kill all of these beautiful people more than seventy years ago.

That power also aimed its darkest assaults at the Jewish people. And then the thought, he didn’t win, he will never win, popped into my head and heart.

The Anti-Defamation League writes that VT “features anti-Israel and Holocaust denial materials,” and describes their editor, Gordon Duff, as a conspiracy theorist.” Their words are an understatement; VT does much more than that. They advocate for the death of Jews in the United States and the destruction of Israel.

Mazin Qumsiyeh offers a link to his web site, Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web, at the end of his article. He has linked to Christian resources including the PCUSA. But at the end of the list Qumsiyeh links to what he calls another Christian perspective which is mostly somebody’s gathering of news articles, but at the top is an absurd batch of material including a Bible verse which is ripped totally out of context.

But even more absurd and untruthful is this: “96% OF THE WORLD'S JEWS ARE ASHKENAZIM, WHO CAN TRACE THEIR ANCESTRY TO KHAZARIA, A CONGLOMERATE OF ARYAN TURKISH TRIBES WHICH CONVERTED TO JUDAISM IN A.D. 740.THE ASHKENAZIM HAVE NO HISTORIC RIGHTS TO 'RETURN' AND OCCUPY LAND IN THE MIDDLE EAST. THEY SHOULD 'TRANSFER' TO THE STEPPES OF SOUTHERN RUSSIA OR STRAIGHT TO MONGOLIA WHERE ALL TURKISH TRIBES ORIGINATED!”

And this leads to one of the biggest sections of Qumsiyeh’s site, his book, “Sharing the Land of Canaan.” In his book Qumsiyeh takes the historical minimalist view discounting the journey of the Israelites out of the land of Egypt and thus eliminating much of the important history of the Jews and desecrating the foundations of Christianity.

Qumsiyeh attempts to trace all of the indigenous peoples of Palestine to the Canaanites but goes much further. He attempts to make the case that most of the Jews who returned to Israel after World War II were converts to Judaism and related to the Khazars a small kingdom of warriors who converted first to Judaism and then to Greek orthodoxy. He writes:

“The claims of a "single Jewish origin" are not well substantiated with a wide variety of incredibly rich data from historical, archeological, and other sources. The research of Arthur Koestler, who happens to be an Ashkenazi Jew himself, clearly demonstrates that most Ashkenazis are convert Khazar's with closer ties to Turkish people than to Semitic people (20). This conclusion is further bolstered by evidence from language development (e.g. Yiddish origin and history and absence of use of Aramaic in ancient Khazar Jewish sources), and now genetics.”

Additionally he writes, “In both Koestler's and Kevin Alan Brook's books … ample archeological and historical sources are examined leading to the conclusion that the origins of the majority of present day Ashkenazi Jews are Khazar-Turkish rather than Semitic.” This is an old anti-Semitic ploy and has not been proven; I refer the reader to Jacob’s Legacy: A genetic View of Jewish History by Davis B. Goldstein.

And an important point here is that while there is some positive proof that the Khazar’s converted to Judaism, one must remember that this was a small kingdom and does not at all cancel out the genetic relationship of any large group of Jews such as the Ashkenazic from their ancient Israelite ancestors.[1]

There is another section in Qumsiyeh’s book where he attempts to prove there was collaboration between the Nazis and the Zionists as though there was something evil about Zionist leaders trying to quickly get as many Jews as possible out of Nazi Germany.

On another page of Qumsiyeh’s site are links and information about his most important project. That is attempting to bring about a one state solution for the Middle East, which Qumsiyeh refers to as the United States of Canaan.

It would not be a Jewish State. And the underlying principle of the plan is that the “occupation” covers the whole land of what is referred to as Palestine. The histories, used as a foundation for one state, are incomplete and misleading; nothing is told of the Arab nations attacking Israel in 1948, or of their threats to attack in 1967. A one state solution is a harmful solution based on half-truths.

Almost everyday there are bad, anti-Semitic sites linked to by IPMN. Constantly there are derisive and jeering words spoken against the Jewish people, Zionism and Israel by leaders and friends of IPMN on their Facebook site. Alas! Mordor draws all wicked things, and the Dark Power [is] bending all its will to gather them there. But he did not win and he will never win.

And they sang the song of Moses, the bond servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying,Great and Marvelous are your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; righteous and true are your ways, King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy; for all the nations will come and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed. (Rev. 15:3-4)

In disagreement the commenter wrote, “Viola, how about working for how we can AGREE with one another, rather than how we DISAGREE? Maybe God’s shalom will break through if we don’t help the sides rub salt in the wounds.”

And this is an issue that I think needs to be addressed because it is an important statement about how issues are sometimes, but not always, resolved. We want reconciliation and are even willing to compromise in order to reach peaceful agreements. Sometimes that is good and right. But sometimes it isn’t. The truth is that sometimes we are so desirous of seeking reconciliation that we become confused about the difference between standing for righteousness and dialoguing for unity.

And so questions ensue. What does one do in the face of evil? And how should we as Christians, who are often seen as peacemakers, oppose evil. When is a compromise a good position to take and when is it wrong? When do we quit looking for what we agree on because the other person or group has become so involved in evil that all we can do is stand and oppose them?

Israel and the Palestinians with their horrendous problems and the PCUSA’s IPMN’s involvement in their problems are perhaps the ultimate reasons for answering those questions. I believe that Rev. Dr. Byron Shafer, a member and lone dissenter, of the past PCUSA Middle East Study Committee, gave the clearest answer in his speech at the GA breakfast for Presbyterians for Middle East Peace. We must love both sides, Israel and the Palestinians, and act accordingly.

So where and how can Christians and Presbyterians agree with the IPMN. We can not and, please, listen very carefully to why I say this. Many of us oppose most of the settlements, we may oppose where the wall is placed, we must oppose any racism, we must criticize Israel as well as the Palestinians, but we cannot discuss issues or talk about agreement on Middle East issues with the Israel Palestine Mission Network. They have crossed a line that must never be crossed again by any church or Christian organization in the modern or post-modern eras. Here is their offense:

1. They have slandered the Jewish people of the United States without apology. That also happened in the past and was part of the many acts of anti-Semitism against the Jewish people that led to the holocaust.[2]

2. They have allowed themselves to be pulled into a circle of vile anti-Semitic writers who are willing to tell lies about Israel and the Jewish people. Some of the writers even advocate for the death of the Jews, insisting they are trying to take over the world.[3]

3. They promote a one state solution and insist that Israel should not be a Jewish State, thereby denying the Jewish people any place of safety.[4]

4. They make common cause with and defend those who believe that Jewish refugees are not genetic Jews and that they should be pushed out of Israel and return to the countries in which they were persecuted.[5]

5. They make light of the Holocaust equating the death of six-million people with the suffering of the Palestinian people.[6]

If we make common cause with the IPMN we will be on the side of those who do nothing but rub salt in the wound of the Jewish people and their wound is deep, cruel and very, very old. If we unite with IPMN around any common agreement we will be connected to that other part of them which is now so deeply entrenched in anti-Semitism that it causes our whole denomination to reek with the same odor that drifted over the world in the 1930’s.

William Buckley, that great conservative who loved debate, knew when to do so and when to cut away that which would poison his own morals. He refused connections to the John Birch Society because of their early anti-Semitism and their conspiracy theories; he severed Patrick Buchannan from conservative fellowship because of his anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism has no place in the life of a Christian individual or organization. I pray that all who are members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will begin to move away from any connections with those who are tainted with such immorality.

The Lord of the Church is truly Lord of the Church. No ideology, no group of advisors tainted with prejudice and bigotry, no leadership which allows worldly lies to enter our decision making has a right above his rights. Salvation is “from the Jews” Jesus told the woman of Samaria. Our heritage is in both the New and the Old Testament. We are not allowed to cut ourselves free from any of those pages. We are forever connected to God’s promises to Israel that through them he would bless the world. As we hold that blessing, Jesus Christ, close, we will not allow his Hebrew children to be maligned and hated.

Thursday, December 23, 2010

"Some church leaders in Iraq have told Christians not to celebrate Christmas except with prayer after lethal attacks and continuing threats by militants against the Iraqi Christian community."

And:

"Mukhlis Kyriakos, a priest at Our Lady of Salvation, said the decision to limit festivities was made in part because of ongoing threats from militants, who had warned parishioners not to use traditional methods to honor those killed.

"The Archbishop Council of Iraq decided that celebrations are to be limited to prayers at churches only. No celebrations, no parties," he said.

'We are still receiving threats from terrorists. Even families of those killed inside the church were threatened that if they hang a banner marking their lost relatives, their houses will be blown up.'"

And:

"'What is happening to us these days is similar to what happened to Jews in Iraq before,' Kyriakos said. 'Christians are being displaced from their country.'"

"Fr. Jahola acknowledged stories that have circulated among the Iraqis who are fleeing their homeland. He said he believes reports that Christian homes have been marked with red crosses as targets for Islamic extremists. The crosses are a warning of violence to come, he said. They are a sign, he said, that “these people are in (the) Church, so they are still alive. … that we still need to eliminate them.”

No place in Iraq, not even the more peaceful Kurdistan region, provides certainty for Christians to live safely, he said."

And this:

"The Baghdad cathedral attack inspired in him [Fr. Jahola] strength and resolve that he did not know he had.

“This for me is the strength of the martyrs who witnessed to their faith in the Church,” he said. “For me, I haven't yet done what I need to do, so that awaits me.”

Soft light through which we see the world,

held in your strong arms incarnate One,

we sing your praise Holy Child, they close their mouths

in faithfulness and whisper none.

Not she-ass or ewe to breathe warm barn smells there;

but smells of death and hatred scattered on every straw.

There will be no bells or songs or pleasant praise;

The cross grows where the praise stood a thousand years

or more.

Holy One as you came in a still night with boundless angel song

come soon again and undo the pain that lingers still.

In many folds and in Iraq where children whisper not

your praise but hope in you. Come soon again,

but comfort now or more.

-

(Picture, La Vierge De Tolede, by Picasso)

The video I am placing below is certainly not a Christmas hymn, nor is it a Catholic or even Presbyterian song, it is an Anabaptist hymn and I think fits the mood of this post:

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Several months ago I finished reading Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy. The book is written by Eric Metaxas who also wrote a biography of William Wilberforce. I find myself quoting from Metaxas’ book on Dietrich Bonhoeffer extensively as I write on my blog. It is relevant for this day and speaks to the many current issues surfacing in the United States today.The book provides material that had not yet been used in other bios of Bonhoeffer, for instance there is a whole chapter devoted to Bonhoeffer’s romance and engagement to Marie Von Wedemeyer. There is new material on Bonhoeffer’s reaction to Union Theological Seminary in New York, and American liberal theology in general. The book provides a better understanding of Bonhoeffer’s willingness to become a part of the conspiracy to kill Hitler, a conspiracy, which, by the way, involved German military intelligence, over a thousand people and several years of commitment.

And this is one of the more poignant parts of the book. The devastation Hitler caused to the aristocratic families of Germany as he sought vengeance against those who attempted to kill him. Under the subtitle, “Bonhoeffer Leaves Berlin,” meaning he was headed to a concentration camp, Metaxas writes:

In the early afternoon of February 7, Bonhoeffer and a number of other prominent prisoners were taken from their cells and made to wait near two vans that would take them to the concentration camps at Buchenwald and Flossenburg. There were twenty men all principal figures in the conspiracy. A more stunning array of personages can hardly be imagined.

Among them was the former chancellor of Austria, Dr. Kurt Von Schuschnigg whose treatment by the Gestapo was one of the blackest marks in the history of the Third Reich. Here, too, was Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, former head of the Reichsbank, who had enabled Hitler’s rise to power and later fought in vain against the monster he’d helped create. Schacht had spoken against the treatment of the Jews early on and was part of the 1938 plot. Like so many others, he was arrested after the failed Stauffenberg plot. And here stood Admiral Canaris, General Oster, and Judge Sack. …

Metaxas goes on naming many more of those who were well known and respected in Germany and yet would suffer and die in the two concentration camps. And this is just one small part of a well researched book that not only gives attentiveness to historical details but also guides the reader to see the strength experienced in the life of a devout and faithful Christian. Bonhoeffer’s devotional life is included in the details.

I had intended to write a review, and still may. But sometimes the web provides helpful material and in this case a great deal of material.

Here is a video of the author speaking about his book. Beneath it I am putting a link to a speech he made in New York for C-SPAN. The video for C-SPAN is an hour long but very good. Metaxas is speaking at the Y before what seems to be a group of older Jewish people. During the Q&A time one person reveals that they are a Holocaust survivor and another that his uncle was in a concentration camp. Their questions and comments are very good.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

On the front page of the Israel/Palestine Mission Network is a small article entitled, “The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s perverted stance on ‘tolerance’” by Martha Reese. One of the issues the author is decrying is that the Simon Wiesenthal Center has nothing to say about the Rabbis in Israel who published a letter forbidding their people to rent to non-Jews. At the beginning of the article the author asks:

Why does the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) have nothing to say about the rabbinical edict circulating in Israel—currently signed by more than four dozen rabbis—forbidding the sale or rental of homes to non-Jews?

This is a rather complex issue, but in a manner of speaking there has been a statement by a leading member of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. It can be found at Cross-Currents, and is written by a friend, Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, the Director of Interfaith Affairs for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as well as holder of the Sydney M. Irmas Chair in Jewish Law and Ethics at Loyola Law School.

What should be understood here is that the issues have to do with Jewish law and the kind of complexities that only those qualified to speak on such matters can address. My posting concerns two articles and I have read both. But it would be dishonest of me to say I understand everything. They are very interesting and very difficult. But the important point I want to make is that the issue has been addressed and the Rabbis’ edict found faulty by a member of the SWC.

Adlerstein is calling for kindness, use of all the legitimate literature on the subject and he is pointing to Lichtenstein’s response as the good example. Lichtenstein’s last paragraph is:

I conclude with what should be self-evident. At stake are key questions that involve meta-halakhic [the Jewish body of law] considerations. The willingness and ability to consider and assign appropriate weight to wide-ranging components related to halakhic content and its connection to both historical and social realities mandates a much wider discussion. We, who dwell in the beit midrash, remain committed to our belief and desire “to proclaim that God is upright, my rock in whom there is no wrong.”

If that sounds like an interesting read, please go and read. Just know that there is concern about the Rabbis’ edict.

The problem here is that secular people with a definite ideology are demanding that all of the Rabbis, both orthodox and otherwise conform to their way of making statements. That is not the way one listens to the other.

"James Wall, the former editor-in-chief and still contributing editor of the Christian Century, comes out today as an unabashed, enthusiastic supporter of Hamas, the terrorist movement sworn to the destruction of Israel. He does so by way of mourning the fact that after the 2006 Palestinian election, Hamas was not permitted to takeover the Palestinian Authority and significantly increase the resources it had to pursue its war against the Jews."Wall is also the writer that the PCUSA's Israel/Palestine Mission Network keeps linking to; they, in fact, think he is so good they have several of his articles on their web page. After you read Fischler's article in which he quotes Wall, "Israel could not allow Hamas to be seen as a political party that had won an election the way parties do in a democracy. Hamas had to be peddled as a “terror” organization that is a threat to world peace, a narrative pattern that continues to this day, as Israel and its US neoconservative allies pound the war drums against Iran," come back and watch this video. The video was made on Dec. 14th, just this past week, and covers a rally set up by Hamas marking their 23rd anniversary. The speaker is the Prime Minister of Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh. He is making it quite clear that Hamas will never recognize Israel.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

In Gabriel’s message to Mary his promise about Jesus is, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his Kingdom will have no end.” Is this political cast in the spiritual or is it spiritual cast in political terms? Or is it both?

Perhaps it is that both modern and post-modern people are such materialist that a King whose kingdom is not of this world isn’t much of a king at all. Or if they want to make him some kind of worldly leader or guru they cut away all of the biblical meaning of his kingship. But he is truly King. He is king whether we want him to be or not.

But my thought about Jesus being a King who isn’t much of a King at all, it is because of the way we see the world, its because we have lost touch with the realities that are greater than any worldly realities. This causes such hardness and faithlessness. And Advent isn’t just about the first coming of Christ; it’s also about his second coming. And he is coming.

That One who is seemingly so weak and unreal with his coming will break through the broken certainties of this sinful world with a hugeness of reality none of us expect. It will be like the grass of Paradise in C.S. Lewis' Great Divorce. It was so real it hurt the feet of those who traveled there from darker regions.

Political will mean what it could not mean now. Jesus' kingliness is the measure of all kings and rulers. His power is full of perfect justice, perfect comfort, perfect mercy, perfect judgment, and perfect love. We shall tremble before him, and some shall rejoice but all will kneel in acknowledgement that he is truth.

He is the hidden one now, and often his people are also hidden. But he is a King, he will come and he will never leave us. Praises for his birth, praises for his second coming.

Friday, December 17, 2010

In the very early 1920’s the Brown Shirts who followed Hitler were generally considered a gang of buffoons. Once known as the German workers Party, even before Hitler, their main ideas were to fight capitalism and communism, uphold nationalism and despise the Jews. They were a small group of radicals who participated in street fights with the communist. In the end they were not a joke, but were responsible for the murder of millions of people including six million Jews.

I write this having just read an article in the left leaning Israeli newspaper, Haaretz.com, Bloggers claim WikiLeaks struck deal with Israel over diplomatic cables leaks. The article written by Danna Harman, unwittingly, includes a small interview with the publisher of Veterans Today’s Senior Editor, Gordon Duff. While Veterans Today majors in progressive views its Editor, Duff, and its writers believe not only that Wikileaks was instigated by Israel but also 9-11.

Veterans Today is one of the more vile anti-Semitic sites on the internet offering material by one of the vilest anti-Semitic writers, J.B. Campbell, who advocates the death of Jewish rabbis and American leadership in both government and business. He also pushes for the destruction of Israel and believes Germany was the good nation during World War II.

“Jews are in controlling positions in every segment of our lives, from the financial collapse of Wall Street, to the collapse of our currency by the Federal Reserve Corporation, the collapse of the US military from Jewish wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a de facto Jewish war against Pakistan and a threatened Jewish war against Iran. Trillions of tax dollars have been lost to the pockets of Jewish bankers and speculators.”

And:

“The only foreign enemies we have are in Israel. You don’t need to mess with them. The real enemy is domestic, the Jew who sends you to Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran to kill people who never threatened us but who are hated by Jews. We have to clean up this country by wiping out the Jewish organization.”

This is a new move of anti-Semitism from the right to the left. The far right has always had an anti-Semitic bent. But now with the constant push by those involved in leftist movements to delegitimize the State of Israel, which they see as a symbol of all that they hate about the West, many publications, religious groups and newspapers are being infiltrated by leftist anti-Semitism.

Just recently I posted an article about James Wall, former publisher and Editor of Christian Century praising Veterans Today.[1] He wrote, “The website Veterans Today is not a “sludge-bucket”. It is a progressive website that sees injustice and calls it for what it is …” He is a contributing writer for a site connected to Veterans Today, My Catbird Seat. Also, along with Gordon Duff, Wall believes Israel is the instigator of the Wikileaks.

A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) organization the Israel/Palestine Mission Network, with mostly a progressive membership, continues linking to Wall and his diatribes against Israel and the Jews. Such is the infiltration of radical anti-Semitism into the progressive community.

This growing movement feeds on itself. At least eight anti-Semitic sites pull in articles by Gordon Duff and others who write for Veterans Today. Interestingly enough no one has yet used any of the articles written by the ultimate anti-Semite who writes there, J.B. Campbell. But like the Brown Shirts and Hitler with which I began this article, all of this awful anti-Semitism can move swiftly into a movement that one will no longer think of as a small group of buffoons, but rather a movement of large scary orcs straight out of a JRR Tolkien book.

[1] Please note, Christian Century does not prescribe to any form of anti-Semitism. In fact before the Presbyterian General Assembly James Wall in anger wrote an article, which among other things, denounced one of their articles which stood up for the Jewish people. See, “Israeli “Agents” Infiltrate Presbyterian General Assembly.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Dr. Charles Wiley and the Office of Theology and Worship have provided a public forum for discussing the Confession of Belhar, almost continuously since the 219th General Assembly. The discussions have been extremely interesting and helpful. One part of the discussion I read offered by Pastor Edward W. Eissabake of St. John's Assyrian PCUSA, struck me as an excellent and convincing argument against adopting Belhar. It is his experiment and its results should be shared. I asked if I might print his remarks on my blog and he graciously has allowed me to post them.

After thanking Dr. Wiley for allowing all of us to share our views Pastor Eissabake wrote:

“Besides standing on all my theological and confessional views on Belhar in this forum, I did something different and practical. I read the Belhar over and over and read it to the people who did not know the background and reason for composing Belhar.

I read it to the following people: 1) a friend of mine who is an African American and Executive Director of a company in field of human and social services; 2) a Cambodian student with Master degree in Sociology; 3) to a Mexican lady and Office Manager of a foster care company; 4) to a Caucasian with doctorate degree in English literature; 5) to a Kenyan Director of Development in an multicultural business. I did not tell them ABOUT the Belhar. I simply read it to them and asked them what they concluded from the message of Belhar. None of them mentioned anything about racism and racial conflicts!!! They all stated that the message of Belhar is about unity.

This was an eye opening action that the matter of racism has been mentioned in Belhar only in two TINY references under 11.3 paragraphs 3 and 5. I realized that we all are focusing on notes ABOUT Belhar rather than Belhar by itself. The whole Belhar is talking about unity in an inclusive form, not racism.

Please try it. Do not read ABOUT Belhar or its background. Simply read it, and you will find me true. I conclude my notes on Belhar in this forum by repeating my two fundamental questions: B) WHY do we need Belhar as a confession while the matter of racism has been considered in a stronger way in C67 and even A Brief Statement of Faith? Why do we need it while we have a mechanism that is functioning very well in handling racism in our denomination? B) HOW does Belhar examine the false doctrines? The simple and general/inclusive language of Belhar lacks the message of racism and lacks the theological standards to determine and reject a false doctrine. Thank you again."I encourage all to try this; here is a copy of the confession, The Belhar Confession

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn.

Hesitant, but hopeful, I went with my husband last night to a dinner at a maximum security prison for young men in the small town of Ione in Northern California. Two young men sat at each table with the rest of us. Most were hesitant and hopeful too.

The food was very good. A plate full of cookies ended the meal. But God’s good word followed.

Two of the young men read the biblical text and the chaplain, who is chaplain over all prison chaplains in California, spoke in between the reading, about the angels and the shepherds …

In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Why to shepherds we were asked? David was a shepherd we were reminded. But as Dave, the Chaplain, spoke he reached all the way to Revelation. Out of all other needs, and these young men have many needs, as do we all, they need Jesus. And in Revelation is that beautiful picture of the Shepherd.

These [those dressed in white robes] are the ones who come out of great tribulation and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb. For this reason they are before the throne of God; and they serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will hunger no longer, nor thirst anymore; nor will the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; for the lamb in the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and will guide them to springs of the water of life; and God will wipe every tear from their eyes.

Several people spoke about their past as prisoners and how they were changed because of Jesus. One man, who was at Preston in the early fifties, is now a pastor and works with Teen Challenge. One person, in particular, touched me, she married one of the past prisoners and then they both received Jesus as Lord. Her 17 year old son was killed, her husband died of aids and still she comes every Monday night to minister to young men, telling them that she sees the face of her son in their faces, telling them that when she kneels to pray she prays for them.

I thought of Jesus being born in a stable in Bethlehem and how much this place full of kids from the streets and gangs were like those that Jesus came to in that ancient world of Judea. He came to save them and us by his life, bloody death and resurrection. He, the Holy perfect Shepherd gives eternal abundant life.

At the end there was a small choir formed from the prison wards. Their songs were beautiful, full of the hope, the only hope in this world, the Lamb, the shepherd, the king born in a stable.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Are you tired of this? I am; it is Christmas and I want to concentrate on this sacred time, celebrating the first coming of Jesus, writing about the incarnation and posting beautiful Christmas hymns. But one of our Presbyterian organizations is at war with the Jewish people and because I belong to Jesus Christ I cannot back away from this terrible time.

Saturday, Dec. 11th, the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) linked to an awful article about the Simon Wiesenthal Center which not only slandered the center but also its Dean & founder, Rabbi Marvin Hier. The IPMN when linking to the article written by Lawrence Swaim, wrote, “Time to point the finger back at the Simon Wiesenthal Center.”[1] Their point is bigoted and shallow. Did they even read the article?

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is an extreme rightwing Jewish organization, tinged by neo-fascism and with many of the characteristics of a hate organization. It is based almost completely on a vulgarized, pervasive form of religious nationalism. Its vision for Israel is consistent with the neo-fascist Jabotinsky tendency within Zionism that was modeled on Italian fascism, and it also promotes the Likudnik doctrine that Judaism itself has no practical or demographic existence separate from Israel. The SWC supports the neo-con belief in permanent war in the Middle East, and it engages in the vigorous dissemination of religious bigotry against Muslims in the US. It portrays anti-Semitism as worse than it is, partly for fund-raising purposes and partly to establish an imagined victim status. It similarly uses the Holocaust both todiscourage criticism of Israel and to justify Israel’s own violence, aggressively insisting that every criticism of Israel is really aimed at destroying the Jewish people. Above all, the SWC is a dangerous cultural force that seeks religious war as the standard for religious authenticity.

Of SWC's leadership Swaim writes:

The fight over Mamilla Cemetery is a dispute in which Rabbi Hier, the very incarnation of the charismatic but morally corrupt religious fanatic, seeks to invent a new Judaism that, like medieval Christianity, defines itself by its ability to wound and torment the underdog.

Of the membership of the Simon Wiesenthal Center the author writes:

One has the sense that Hier’s followers are primarily lower (and middle) middle-class people, perhaps small businesspersons and conservative professionals who reject Judaism’s traditional concern for social justice, whose level of cultural literacy is not particularly high, and who are attracted to the us-against-them aggression of religious nationalism.

To put it very succinctly, I consider the Rabbis at the Simon Wiesenthal Center my friends. I know them to be men of integrity. The IPMN may consider it important to get revenge against those they consider their enemies, but it seems to me that such action fails to honor the Prince of Peace. More than that, using a despicable insulting article full of fraudulent, contrived and exaggerated content to get revenge dishonors the One who is truth himself.

May God have mercy on us all.

[1] The author of this diatribe, Lawrence Swaim, is listed as Director of the Interfaith Freedom Foundation, an organization that apparently has no web site. The article was taken from a Muslim paper for which Swain writes a column, InFocus News. After clicking around on the site I could not come up with past articles, but here is an overview by the Jewish organization, The Anti-Defamation League.

[2] To read about the dispute over the Museum read the article that Swaim has written and then go to the Simon Wiesenthal Center and read their page on the Museum, read the whole page, The Museum of Tolerance, Jerusalem.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has a policy of a two state solution for the troubled Middle East. I have been writing for over a year that the Israel/Palestine Mission Network was and is pushing for a one state solution. On November 9th I posted, Is an overture for a one state solution looming on the horizon? I was wrong about the overture but I was not wrong about the IPMN’s attitude toward a one state solution. Noushin Darya Framke of the IPMN, (She is chair of their communications committee), has written an article for Ecclesio.com. The article, Ye Shall Share the Land calls into question the very concept of a Jewish State.

There are details in the article that I am going to skip over and refer my readers to an excellent post on Framke’s article written by my friend David Fischler at Reformed Pastor. His article is “The Mask Comes Off,” and as always he carefully goes into the details. But I want, instead, to deal with this continuing arrogance that permeates the IPMN. And at the same time the great need for the Jewish people to have a Jewish State.

The IPMN’s attitude toward Israel as a Jewish State is troubling. In the article Framke quotes Tony Judt writing that she prefers his way of seeing Israel. She writes:

Judt famously called Israel an anachronism, saying it was a good idea for the nineteenth century but an idea whose time had passed in the 21st century. Judt said Israel arrived too late: “The very idea of a ‘Jewish state’—a state in which Jews and the Jewish religion have exclusive privileges from which non-Jewish citizens are forever excluded—is rooted in another time and place. Israel, in short, is ananachronism.”

The truth is Israel as a Jewish state was created for the care and safety of Jewish people. And its Arab citizens are not excluded. They can vote and hold office. They have freedom of religion. Yes, there are problems, serious problems, recently racist problems, but they are solvable but the destruction of Israel as a Jewish State is a disaster.

I have watched from my distant computer chair the speed with which the Israel/Palestine Mission Network has entered into the dark world of radical anti-Jewish thought and ideas. I have watched with fear, because rather than pushing for solutions between two peoples they have excluded anything good done by Israel and have made her the ultimate enemy. Entering the radical world of the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions movement they have embraced a movement that believes Israel should never have existed and that one state with an Arab majority is the solution.

IPMN has not entered the world of Israel at all; Israel is the other. Neither have they entered into the world of the Palestinians, but instead into the world of Hamas and Hezbollah, and further into a world of dark sinister hatred for the Jew.

Just two days ago IPMN, once again, linked to another James Wall posting in which he was suggesting that the Israelis were the source of Wikileaks. Wall was using as a source another writer who writes for Veterans Today. The article he referenced was on another anti-Semitic site, but it was also on VT since the writer, Jeff Gates, is a staff writer for them.[1]

Veterans Today is the awful anti-Semitic site that James Wall thinks “is a progressive website that sees injustice and calls it for what it is …” At the same time that Wall was referencing a VT writer, a different writer on that site was explaining that all of the United State leadership during the last presidency was controlled by the Jews (he still thinks leadership is controlled by the Jews) and he wrote:

These people must all be hanged, which is the accepted and traditional American punishment for capital crimes and especially for war crimes. They have already committed the crimes that call for their hanging, so they feel they have nothing to lose by nuking Iran and Syria for their Israeli masters. … We are up against a combination of cunning, greed and insanity that is hard to describe, let alone argue with. It can only be exterminated, as we do with dangerous or filthy insects and vermin in our homes. And when we’re dealing with rats and cockroaches, we don’t take any of them prisoner.

After writing that he wrote this about Israel:

The various agencies of the gangster state of Israel must be similarly disposed of. No more Jewish rules of conduct, and no Jewish Rule under the North American Union. Do we want to be the laughingstock of the world? I should say, do we want to continue to be the laughingstock of the world? To be big, tough Americans who let a bunch of creepy Jews run us like cattle?[2]

None of this bothers the leadership of IPMN. They are sliding into a dreadful place. But what is truly shameful is that they are themselves perpetrating the very reason that the Jewish State of Israel needs to exist. Anti-Semitism is growing around the world, it is growing in the United States, and even in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The IPMN’s actions, including Framke’s article, is proof enough that there must be a Jewish State.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Arguments concerning the challenges to proposition 8 were given this week in San Francisco before the Federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. That is the referendum that was passed in California upholding traditional marriage. The Covenant Network reports that there was a rally for same gender marriage outside and that one of the speakers was their Executive Director Pam Byers. They have posted her speech and she ends with this comment.

“And as a young college friend said to our recent national conference, ‘Jesus had two dads, and he turned out all right!’”

One wants to say all kinds of things like are you suggesting the family was polygamist, meaning one wife and two husbands. Or are you equating Joseph’s relationship to God with a homosexual coupling?

But what does it really mean that Jesus had a heavenly Father and an earthly step father? Doesn’t that take in the whole sweep of God’s revelation to his church? Isn’t that the whole story of Holy Scripture? Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of the Father, taking on human flesh, living and dying for our redemption.

There are surely two Christmas stories sweeping through our Presbyterian Church. One is God’s revelation, met with awe, devotion and worship. That story is always new, it is the story saints and martyrs never grow tired of hearing. It is the push and shove that plants their feet in hard places. It is God’s promises fulfilled in history. It is God’s light that shines in our awful darkness.

The other Christmas story, the plot is somewhat the same, but the words have lost their meaning because they seem unbelievable, old and stale. So old and stale that the story can be used blasphemously to hopefully bring about something ‘new’ while putting Jesus in the funny box. It is simply a means to an end, a way to hurry on to some new vision or some new activity.

But Jesus, the Incarnation, his life, his word, his death, his resurrection, that is our story that is our song.

Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son; and you shall call his name Jesus for he will save his people from their sins." (Matt. 1:20b-21)

Sunday, December 5, 2010

It isn’t going to end soon, there are too many radical anti-Semitic sites that many of us, who don’t make a habit of reading conspiracy driven web sites, know nothing about. But obviously James Wall of Wall Writings, along with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network is very aware of such sites. They link to them, use material from their sites, and in Wall’s case, write for them.

After being totally rebuffed by moderator, Carol Hylkema, of IPMN in my plea that they not use James Wall since he writes for, praises and cites writers for such web sites, they are again linked to Wall, and he is using and is linked to another radical anti-Semitic site, Sabbah Report.

The way it works is one writer writes about conspiracies such as this article, Is the "Times Square Terrorist" more Field-based Warfare, in which Gates, the writer Wall used in his article, blames, among other things, the destruction of the two ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan, the destruction of the World Trade Center towers in New York, the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, etc., etc. on Israel. Everyone picks up those parts that either interest them or that they find credible. And it is supposed that if enough people write about the theory it must be true.

The IPMN is starting to do this by connecting to all of the writers through Wall’s writings. It is an easy way to slam not only Israel but also the Jewish people of the United States.[1] It is an easy way to avoid doing real homework about your main subject. It is an easy way to spit on the roots of your faith and deny the grace of God given through that One Jew on the cross.

[1] One Jewish Rabbi, Rabbii Gershon Steinberg-Caudill, who comments on the IPMN Facebook links is seemingly getting a bit more discerning about what they post. after reading Wall's posting he writes, "I think the movie [Fair Game: a movie Wall uses to make his point.] should be required viewing while I do not believe that Israel has any relationship with Wikileaks.'

After another link, Encountering Peace: Five minutes to midnight, about whether Israel can be a Jewish State and a Democracy at the same time, the Rabbi states: "There CAN be BOTH a Jewish State AND a Democracy. England is a Christian State and a Democracy. It CAN be done." In what appears to be a sassy contradiction to the Rabbi, IPMN's Noushin Framke writes:"Yes. But only if being Jewish doesn't give citizens any privileges. Problem is, Israel is based on Jewish exceptionalism."

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Last night for some reason I started thinking of all my Christmases; the sad ones, the joyous ones, the just plain fun ones. I remember a Christmas when my Dad took our wagon across an icy stream, with my sisters and I bundled up, sitting on the wagon floor. We cut down one of our own pine trees and decorated it with crepe paper and popcorn. There were sleds for Christmas, and something extra for each of us. My extra was a toy nurse’s kit because until I found out that science wasn’t my favorite subject I thought I wanted to be a nurse.

If my Mom and Dad gave us a doll it was usually sitting unwrapped under the tree, just like a new baby born on Christmas morning. And there was always, bowls of fragrant oranges, the ribbon Christmas candies that come in many colors, and different kinds of nuts.

Now, each year, after Christmas I wrap our decorations in tissue paper and place them in a box and write on the top “for a holy Christmas” and then I put the next year’s date. So many memories are boxed up. There is the tiny fading tin Santa that belonged to my husband’s mother, Juanita, also her little porcelain angel that is a bell that rings. The kids use to fight over who would hang that one.

There is also the little gold colored train with a red setting that Juanita brought to hang on the tree just three days before she would die on a snowy, sleety road in a terrible car accident near Bend, Oregon. There is so much in that box.

Juanita was a young teenager during the years of the depression and the dust bowl. She traveled with her family from Oklahoma to California, living in a tent with her family. Her mother worked in the canneries in Monterey and her father; he was a hard evil man, an occultist, who helped put together the Egyptian museum in San Jose. He was proud and arrogant making his children suffer in ways that are inappropriate and impossible to write about.

But Juanita found some peace and joy in the Lord when she became a Christian. And that is what Christmas is about, finding life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Joy, sorrow, happiness in a box of ornaments, but it all circles around Jesus and the great gift he has given with his birth at Bethlehem, his life, death and resurrection.

Bonhoeffer, using Isaiah 9:6-7 writes of all the different aspects of Christ’s identity. He spoke in a sermon:

What kings and statesmen, philosophers and artist, religious leaders and moral teachers have labored for in vain is now brought about by a new born child. Here a child, born in the midst of world history, has put to shame the wisdom and efforts of the strong. A child, born of a human mother, a Son given by God. That is the secret of the salvation of the world. All the past and all future is here encompassed. The unending comfort of the almighty God comes to us, humbly and in the form of a child, his Son. That this child is born, for us, given for us, that this human child, God’s Son, belongs to me, that I know him, have him, love him, that I am his and he is mine, means that now my life depends only on him. A child has our life in his hands.[1]

People lie all the time that is probably why one of God’s commandments is “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” But when you do it before the United Nations there should be serious consequences. There of course will be before the judgment seat of God, alone, without Christ as an advocate. But then if you are a communist and probably an atheist I suppose you don’t think about such things.

Reformed Pastor David Fischler has just put up a posting entitled, “Spokesperson for the mainline.” The posting contains a video and is about Judith LeBlanc, Vice Chairperson of the Communist Party speaking to the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People on behalf of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation. That is an organization that is supported by most of the mainline churches. It is the group supported by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

In the speech LeBlanc makes several comments that are to be expected. She refers to the occupation of Palestine and states that it is a sixty year occupation. And she speaks about overcoming the complete occupation. This has been the goal of most people in the Boycott, Divestment Sanctions movement, to turn all of Jewish Israel into an Arab state.

But what is unexpected is the blatant lie that LeBlanc uses in her speech. Speaking of the need of the campaign against Israel to focus on the United States, changing its citizens thinking, she states:

There are new and important examples toward this end. In California member groups of the U.S. Campaign to end Israeli occupation successfully campaigned to place a referendum on the state wide ballot in the next election. It calls on the state to divest teacher and student worker’s retirement pension funds from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation. (Bold mine.)

But the truth is that those involved in the campaign have no idea about whether it is succeeding or not. In an interview by the Socialist Worker, one of the activists, Chris Yatooma, when asked about their success states:

Two and half months into the campaign, we don't have a realistic count of the signatures gathered. In early December, we plan to hold a statewide conference call with our county and regional coordinators to see how many signatures we have gathered at that point. Still, because most of the petitions are being circulated via the Web site and e-mail attachments, we won't have a good grasp of the numbers until mid-January.

Not only is LeBlanc lying to the UN; the whole BDS movement is lying about what their final goal is. At the blog, Divest This, one can gather several very good resources to help those at both universities and other institutions fight against divestment. One such resource can be down loaded; it is The BDS Cookbook - Recipes for defeating BDS

In the resource is a link to a video that explains the true goals of the BDS movement. I am placing it below. To see the video of LeBlanc speaking go to “Spokesperson for the mainline.”

Thursday, December 2, 2010

I sent an e-mail to Carol Hylkema, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Israel/Palestine Mission Network, concerning their link to Veterans Today and to James Wall who not only writes for My Catbird Seat but also praises Veterans Today. Below is my e-mail and then the E-mail she sent me. The e-mail is signed by Hylkema but was sent by Jeffrey DeYoe, chair of the IPMN advocacy group.

I am writing this to inform you that the person you have been linking to both on your front page and your Facebook page, James Wall, has connected to several highly anti-Semitic web sites and insists that they are not anti-Semitic. He, in fact, is writing for them. I know that he was once the Editor of Christian Century but nonetheless he is involved in radical anti-Semitism. Today you linked to his essay, Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve in which he insists that Veterans Today is not anti-Semitic. He writes:

“The website Veterans Today is not a “sludge-bucket”. It is a progressive website that sees injustice and calls it for what it is, which explains why these days, I find myself more at home with my new friends at Veterans Today and My Catbird Seat than with any Presbyterian blogger who has failed to realize that the Israeli occupation is a moral evil which must be ended. Perhaps this is a new ecumenism of the faithful.”

But this is the latest article on Veterans Today, “Dam of Lies.” It not only denies the Holocaust, it says that in World War II the Germans were the good guys. Most of the writers on the site believe the Israelis are the ones who brought down the towers in New York. And yet Noushin Framke placed a comment on Wall's posting about how the site is not anti-Semitic praising Wall and directing people to your site. And you have linked on Facebook to at least one article on Veterans Today.

Thank you for your letter expressing your concern regarding our network's endorsement of James Wall and his writings. From where we stand, James Wall is a beacon of light in a place where debate has produced more heat than light.

Mr. Wall's reference to other writers are his choice, not ours to make. As far as your concern on articles not referenced by James Wall that appear on a website that he has referenced, we feel uncomfortable practicing guilt by association. The Israel Palestine Mission Network never condones anti-Semitism and does not believe that James Wall is anti-Semitic. His record of speaking out against racism and human rights violations in the world speaks for itself and we support his work in this regard.

God's promises, they never fail

About Me

Writer, Lover of books, interested in the history of intellectual and religious ideas, tend with love gardens and grandchildren. My husband, Brad, is a Steinway Piano tuner. We live in a hundred year old house that always needs repairs.

Two Important Information Links

Two links that I visit often are CHURCHandWORLD and GAhelp.net. CHURCHandWORLD is a site that gathers either Presbyterian or Methodist news from the whole spectrum of viewpoints. The Presbyterian section is entitled Presbyweb. Beneath the denominational section is a general section containing the day's religious news gathered from many sites. This is a subscription site. The General Editor is Hans Cornelder.

GAhelp.net, set up by Robert Austell looks at the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and its uncertain future gathering articles which deal with the possibilities of tomorrow. Austell has compiled a great many articles and documents dealing with a changed constitution and changed ordination standards. Everyone’s hopes and fears have a hearing at this site.